She grabbed my shoulders and looked me square in the eyes. “Oh my God. What happened? What did I miss? Your face is all . . . The eagle has landed. The eagle has—”
I couldn’t stop myself from giggling as I cut her off. “Enough with the eagle stuff,” I started to say before backtracking. “No, just kidding. Don’t stop. I want to know.”
“I might just have to start saying eagle instead of the whole sentence, because the number of times he keeps looking at you is getting ridiculous. Now tell me, what the hell just happened between you two? I saw you walk in together and you’re all flushed. Eagle.”
Looking around the room, I’d realized that there were way too many of our classmates and their parents around to have any privacy. “I’ll tell you in the car on the way home.”
“Yeah, you will. Eagle. Eagle. Eagle.”
Of Course I’m Late
Dalton
My computer crashed every time I tried to upload the pictures from the stakeout the other day. I couldn’t in good conscience head to the reunion before making sure everything I needed to add to the case file had gone through and been accepted. When the e-mails to the district attorney and the federal agency finally sent, I jumped into my car and peeled out, only to get stuck in a shitload of Saturday night traffic.
I was extremely late, which pissed me off. After checking the time on my car clock display, I pounded the steering wheel and resisted the urge to lay on the horn because no one ever honked in LA. It was the oddest thing, and I only realized it after I’d been living in New York. New Yorkers honked at everything. I think they honked at the air if they didn’t like the way it felt through their vents.
I pulled at the tie fastened around my neck and loosened it. If I missed Cammie tonight, I’d have to come up with a whole new plan. I wouldn’t be able to sit by and wait any longer. I’d have to take Tucker’s advice and actually call the radio station, or arrest her or something.
But the thought of calling the station to talk to her bothered me. Talking to Cammie for the first time after ten freaking years, well, I wanted to be able to see her face, her expression, her eyes. I didn’t want our first conversation after so many years to be over the phone.
“Move, damn it!” I yelled as the car in front of me slowed down to forty miles per hour for no apparent reason. The hotel where the reunion was being held was only ten minutes away, but I couldn’t get there fast enough. There was so much I needed to tell her. Cammie changed my life and she didn’t even know it. Hell, there was so much she didn’t know that I wanted to share with her.
My cell phone blared out through my car speakers, and I glanced over to see Tucker’s name flashing on my dashboard screen. I pressed Accept and blurted, “Why are you calling me?”
“Hey, buddy. Just wanted to see if you got there yet.”
I clenched my teeth. “Tucker, are you fucking kidding me with this? You think I’m at my reunion, seeing all these people for the first time in ten years, and so you call me to check in? Come on, man!”
“I’m just trying to live vicariously through you. You could have brought me as your guest and then I wouldn’t be calling right now.”
He actually sounded sort of sad. Tucker had suggested that I bring him with me, but I thought that was a little weird. He wouldn’t know anyone, and what kind of loser brings a coworker with them to their high school reunion?
“Well, I’m not there yet,” I said, then groaned with frustration. “I’m stuck in traffic on the 101.”
“You’re not there yet? You’re late as shit.”
I glanced at my car’s clock again and silently fumed. “I know I’m late, okay? You think I don’t know how freaking late I am?” I shouted, then glanced around, hoping no one saw that. If anyone else in traffic happened to look over at me, I probably looked like a crazy person, screaming by myself in an empty car.
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, Caveman. I’m sure your cavegirl will still be there waiting for you.” Tucker roared with laughter, and I wished he was next to me so I could hit him like I usually did when he pissed me off.
“She better be,” I said, secretly praying to everyone holy to not let Cammie leave the reunion before I got there.
“Make sure you take pictures.”
“Of what?” I stared at the brake lights lining my upcoming freeway exit as I changed lanes.
“Of Cammie. Of any hot single girl you think I should bang, I don’t know. Just text me. I’m bored,” he admitted before crunching into something that sounded like potato chips.
“You’re worse than a girl. You know that, right?” I put on my turn signal and maneuvered my car toward the exit.
“I don’t even care right now. That’s how bored I am.”
“Tucker, it’s Saturday night. Go out. Make some friends,” I suggested, knowing that he wouldn’t do it. He hated going out alone, and since we worked most of the time on our case, he hadn’t had a chance to meet new people since we moved. “Ask one of the other guys to go grab a beer or something with you.”
“I hate most of those assholes. Twenty-year-old punks who think they’re invincible. They don’t know nothing. They’d shit themselves if they had to walk a beat in one of the boroughs,” he said, referring to New York.
I cleared my throat, but couldn’t disagree. Most of the officers assigned to our station were really young guys straight out of junior college. They were filled with piss and vinegar, and their egos rivaled that of a reality TV star. Basically, they thought they were far more impressive than they truly were. I only hoped I hadn’t been such a dickhead when I first got out of the academy, but I probably was.